Thursday, April 10, 2014

Civil Society Alliance in Pakistan: A Great Leap Forward

Background:


Pakistan’s General Elections 2013 signified many a change for the first time in our history in terms of voters registration, voters turnout, elimination of bogus voters, mandatory production of CNIC for casting votes and the overwhelming interaction of the political parties with the voters across the country. The people voted for performance of those who governed the country for the previous five years as well as the new comers who promised to deliver in the next five years. The credit goes largely to civil society activists, social media activits, and think tanks for changing the environment. The media was also largely influenced by what was happening on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Technorati, Google+ etc and made a significant contribution to the change.

So, we can now expect the new governments will perform for they know it for sure that the next elections will be tougher than the last elections and the voters will vote for performance. And that the civil society (educated and enlightened men and women) will play a crucial role in determining the success or failure of the political leaders.


Objectives:

Now is the time for the fragmented civil society of Pakistan comprising civil society organizations, NGOs, charities and trusts to organize itself as the first and the most influential good governance network to help solve common issues of their communities. It's always the civil society that exercises checks and balances on the state organs. Let's not fail ourselves and others who look up to us to secure a peaceful and prosperous future for the whole nation and its future generations.

Today, we are confronted with widespread corruption, nepotism, favouritism, civil and police maladministration, poor criminal justice system, dismal performance of parliamentarians, and non-enforcement of socio-economic rights granted under the Constitution of Pakistan.

As a result, we are faced with massive poverty, unemployment, hyper-inflation, power and gas load shedding, escalating fuel cost, sub-standard education and health facilities, costly air, railway and road transport, insecurity and a hopeless future for us and our future generations in general.

Good governance is the KEY to the solution of our issues for all the strata of our society for a progressive and prosperous Pakistan.

Formation:

Good Governance Forum plans to form the Civil Society Alliance (CSA) comprising civil society organizations, NGOs, charities and trusts operating in Pakistan. All the CSA members will maintain their individual identity but affiliate themselves with the CSA on the common agenda of ''good governance for bringing peace, progress and prosperity to 180 millions in Pakistan.'' They will help solve key issues at the local, district, provincial and federal levels for themselves and their communities around them.

Good Governance Forum will fully support CSA through its network of 12000 members, 400 media associates, 100 newspapers as well as its news blogs, social media sites, goodwill ambassadors and advisory committees. 

Good Governance Forum has a network of advocates, businessmen, civil and police officers, diplomats, military officers, parliamentarians and politicians, professionals, NGOs and media. Good Governance Forum can raise voice and create as much noise as needed any time anywhere through lawful means for genuine local, provincial and federal issues as a part of its mission to bring good governance to Pakistan.

The affiliated CSA members will represent the CSA in their towns and cities, build up their rapport with the government agencies and help the communities in solving their common issues. 

Membership Procedure:
Eligibility for Membership: 

Any registered or unregistered civil society organization, NGO, charity and trust can join by filling-in the membership application forum appended below and emailing it to goodgovernanceforum@gmail.com with c.c. to good.governance@ymail.com. A scanned copy of the bank deposit slip of the membership fee of Rs 1000 is to be attached. In case a scanned copy is not possible, then particulars of the bank's name, branch name, branch code and date of deposit may please be intimated to the Good Governance Forum. Membership application will not be entertained without the bank deposit slip.

Membership Fee:

To meet the preliminary expenses of organizing the CSA and setting up its central office, we have introduced a nominal membership fee of Rs 10,000 for the first year for each civil society organization, NGO, charity and trust. Payment can be made in CASH (NO cheques please) at any branch of our bank in Pakistan for online transfer to our bank account. Details of the bank account can be obtained by emailing to goodgovernanceforum@gmail.com

Membership Limit:

Initially, only 100 organizations will be enlisted as founding members on 
FIRST-COME- FIRST-SERVED BASIS starting from Jan 2016. 

Steering Committees:

The nominees of the member organizations (one nominee each) will be part of the concerned Provincial Steering Committee. Each Provincial Steering Committee will recommend THREE (3) members to become part of the Central Steering Committee. 

The Central Steering Committee will organize the Civil Society Alliance i.e. its constitution, registration, setting up office, election of its office bearers etc. The Central Steering Committee and the Provincial Steering Committees will be disbanded after the elected office-bearers take up their offices. Initially, the Central Secretariat will be set up in Islamabad, followed by provincial secretariates in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, and Quetta after the CSA is formally constituted and launched.

The Central Steering Committee and each Provincial Steering Committee will elect its honorary chairman, honorary secretary and honorary treasurer from among its members.

CSA will be a non-political, non-ethnic and non-governmental representative body of the civil society organizations, NGOs, charities and trusts operating in Pakistan. It will work under a legal framework and finance itself by the contributions of the affiliated members on no-loss, no-profit basis. It will have an organizational structure, working establishment, and office-bearers.

Let’s join hands to bring progress and prosperity to our people irrespective of their caste, creed and colour and lead the country to become an ‘Asian Tiger’ in the 21st century.

Good Governance Forum

Leading the Way to the Challenge of Change in Pakistan
Blog:  http://ggovernance.blogspot.com
Blog: http://goodgovernanceforummembers.blogspot.com

The applying organization can copy-paste the Membership Application form below, fill-in the required info, and email it as attachment to goodgovernanceforum@gmail.com. All fields on the form marked (*) are mandatory. 


Civil Society Alliance
Membership Application


*Name of Organization:_______________________________________________________________________

*Mailing Address:___________________________________________________________________________

*Email Address:______________________________

Website:____________________________________

Telephones:
*Landline No:_______________________Fax No.____________________Cell No._______________________

*Registration No:_____________________________ 

*Nature of Registration (e.g. limited company, trust, society etc)_____________________________________

*Name of Registration Authority:___________________________________

*Place:____________________

*Date:____________________

*Field of Interest (e.g.education, health, poverty alleviation etc)

___________________________________________________________

*Name of Chief Executive:_____________________________________

*Landline No:_____________________________________

*Cell No:_________________________________________

*Email:____________________________________

Application signed by:

(a) I certify that the above particulars are true to the best of my knowledge. 
(b) I confirm that we have paid non-refundable membership fee of Rs 1000 into the bank account of Good Governance Forum at Standard Chartered Bank. Scanned copy of the deposit slip is attached.
(c) I agree to the terms and conditions of Civil Society Alliance as listed at http://civilsocietyalliance.blogspot.com as of today.

*Name:____________________________________

*Designation:________________________________

*Signature:__________________________________

*Date:_____________________________________